Tuesday, July 29, 2014

So I recently claimed that rainbow shredded coconut was my favorite sensory bin filler ever. I take that back because I had not yet discovered the awesomeness that is rainbow dyed chickpeas. There are so many reasons why these rainbow chickpeas are now our new favorite sensory bin filler. First of all, they are simply gorgeous. But they are also ridiculously simple to make since there is practically zero drying time involved.

Rainbow Dyed Chickpeas Sensory Play Idea for Kids

But these aren't edible. However, you can make them edible. Although, still don't let your kids eat them.

Let me dazzle you with a few more pictures before I spill the beans (ha!) on how to make these rainbow dyed chickpeas. As you can see, little hands could not resist touching them. First, there were two hands.

For each color of the rainbow, I put 1.5 cups of chickpeas and about 5-8 squirts of liquid watercolors in a plastic bag. Then I let the boys shake and mix the contents until the chickpeas were well coated. You may need to add more liquid watercolors to get complete bean coverage. I highly suggest adding a few squirts at first and then adding one additional squirt at a time until they are well coated.

Now here's the magical thing about dyeing dried chickpeas. They dry almost instantly. Seriously. Within minutes, the chickpeas were dry to the touch. That means you don't have to wait for hours for them to dry. Yay!

The other reason why rainbow dyed chickpeas are simply the best sensory bin filler: their weight. Since chickpeas are heavier than dyed oats or salt or rice or coconut, they offer a lot more tactile input to sensory seeking kids. That means they are also a lot more noisy than other sensory bin fillers, but my noisy boys enjoyed that part too!

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About the Author

Married to her high school sweetheart, Dyan is a Canadian stay-at-home mom to two boys, J and K. She is also a part-time piano teacher. She likes board games, video games, Instant Pots, and reading. To stay connected, subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get a copy of the free Weekly Autism Planner and follow along on social media.

19 comments:

With liquid watercolors, yes, the color would come off on wet hands. These chickpeas are still sitting in our sensory bin as the boys have been playing with them for about 10 days straight now. However, come storage time, I will just put them in one bag with all of the colors mixed together. Leaving them mixed together is a great invitation to sort by color the next time we play!

I have never worked with gel food coloring before, but I bet it would work. You will likely have to add a touch of water or vinegar (kind of like dyeing rice with food coloring) to get a good color distribution. Try it out and let me know!

Too Funny, did you see that your post posts in a column, and your responses print one letter at a time in a column? I have not read all of your posts, but when I dye rice or such, I put a dab of rubbingalcohol into the bag, a few drops of food coloring, mix, add rice, mash it around, then pour out on wax paper to dry. Works great, stays dyed, even when wet. And please, see if you can fix how your post posts...it was fun for a while, but it does give me a headache! Love you, Susie from Port Huron, Michigan, USA

My blog doesn't appear that way on my end nor has it on any other computers and devices that I have viewed it on. It could likely be due to your computer's screen resolution or perhaps you were reading it when I was playing around with the website design the other night. Anyway, it shouldn't appear one letter at a time in a column, but please let me know if you continue to have problems!

I have used that method of rubbing alcohol before when dyeing rice, although I prefer to use vinegar in case little kiddies try to taste it. :)

Seems my comment didn't make your board! Let's try this again.Could you please better describe to me what liquid watercolors are? All I can seem to find is a tube of watercolor paint (similar to oil paint tubes) is that correct?

They come in bottles vs a tube. My friend Asia at Fun at Home with Kids has a fabulous post that describes liquid watercolors in more detail. I would highly suggest reading it: http://www.funathomewithkids.com/2013/08/what-are-liquid-watercolors-and-why.html